E-Mail Service Helps Brokers Target Prospects

An e-mail listing service from LoopNet Inc., an online real estate listing and lending service, has led to more than 80 purchases since it launched Jan. 31.

Dubbed MarketNow, the service lets commercial real estate brokers target prospects with properties that match their buying or leasing requirements.

"The brokers see the value in that they are receiving qualified prospects - people who are actively interested in that particular property," said Natasha Strawn, a spokeswoman at LoopNet, San Francisco.

When brokers add a new listing to LoopNet's database of 90,000 properties in North America, MarketNow informs brokers how many potential buyers in its database matching requirements. Brokers can then e-mail the prospects a MarketNow brochure on that property, and are charged a sliding fee based on how many electronic brochures are sent.

The marketer informed brokers about the e-mail service with a direct mail piece and through its weekly e-mail newsletter.

The direct mail piece, which mailed Jan. 31 to 30,000 brokers, offered a 25 percent discount for signing with the service before March 31. Unfortunately, Strawn said, LoopNet did not include a code that would have enabled it to track response.

The company also promoted the service to 60,000 users via its weekly e-mail newsletter.

"Over the last year, we've been gathering the buying and leasing requirements of our extensive user base," said Brian Collins, a spokesman at LoopNet, adding that the company had gathered approximately 21,000 individual buying or leasing requirements from its users to create MarketNow.

The service is the fourth revenue stream for LoopNet, which also has subscription services that enable users to integrate the LoopNet database within their Web sites, banner ads, and a fee charged to lenders when loans are closed.